Returning residents of Tel Eskof, in Iraq’s Nineveh Plain, sign up to receive aid packages through the local authorities. (photo: Raed Rafei)

Iraqi governor: More than 1,400 Christian families have returned to Nineveh(Fides) More than 1,400 Christian families have already returned to their homes and villages scattered in the Nineveh Plain, which they had abandoned in the summer of 2014 due to the advance of ISIS, says Governor Nawfal al Akoub of the Nineveh province. Indirect confirmation of this can be seen in provisions suspending housing programs established in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2014 by the Chaldean Archdiocese of Erbil, which were designed to help displaced families…

Kurdish independence referendum passes(Daily Star Lebanon) Iraq’s Kurds announced a massive “yes” vote for independence Wednesday following a referendum that has incensed Baghdad and sparked international concern. Longtime Iraqi Kurd leader Massud Barzani said the vote would not lead to an immediate declaration of independence and should instead open the door to negotiations…

Satna mission seminary completes 25 years(UCAN India) St. Ephrem’s Theological College in Satna will commemorate its 25 years of operation with a series of programs on 3 and 4 October, seminary officials said. The seminary of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church — the only one outside of Kerala — focuses on preparing priests for the northern Indian missions. Cardinal George Alencherry, the major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church, will preside over the Divine Liturgy on 4 October…

‘Share the journey,’ embrace migrants, refugees, pope says(CNS) Christ calls believers to welcome migrants and refugees “with arms wide open, ready to give a sincere, affectionate, enveloping embrace,” Pope Francis said, launching the “Share the Journey” campaign of Catholic charities around the world. Christians’ embrace of people fleeing war or poverty should be “a bit like the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square, which represents the mother church who embraces all in sharing a common journey,” the pope said at the end of his weekly general audience on 27 September…

Holy Land Christians frustrated by lack of legal action against vandals(CNS) Christians in the Holy Land, including Catholic leaders, have expressed frustration with lack of legal action against cases of desecration and vandalism of sacred places. Even as the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land issued a statement condemning the 20 September desecration and vandalism of a Catholic shrine in Israel, some people criticized the statement’s “weak language”…

In Aleppo, faith overwhelms fear and violence(AsiaNews) Despite difficulties and the possibility of emigrating, Rania Salouji, a 40-year-old Christian, and her family stayed. Neither the violence of war and fear for an increasingly uncertain future; nor her husband’s abduction and months of captivity at the hands of an extremist group; nor what she calls her “most difficult time,” the death of a child, who was killed by a rocket, were able to drive them out. Rania, is married to Grigor. They have two children: Michael, 17, and Hovik, 14. They have stayed in their city to overcome fear and contribute to the reconstruction of a future of peace and hope in Syria’s largest northern city, once the country’s business capital, as to that of Syria, its history and its people…